One of the best compact cream foundations that I have tried. Easy application, perfect blending, totally natural finish. It turns into a powder almost immediately, but it has nothing to do with looking or feeling dry. At first it reminded me a little bit of Chanel Teint Innocence compact, but this one is not so oily neither melts or oxidizes on me. Lasting power is great, even after several hours I don't look oily. Coverage is medium. But with the sponge -which is excellent by the way- you can achieve full coverage, especially by patting the sponge against your skin, without looking cakey or heavy. I got color Shell 13, the lightest shade here, which I suppose is OK (I am NC15). Packaging is very elegant, although I am not particularly fond of the screw lid.

I always thought of Helena Rubinstein as a stuffy sort of brand but I am recently really impressed by the quality of their products even though I'm not a fan of their very conservative packaging. I do love the Hydrapact though, as the shiny dark bronze-gold of the compact is really elegant. It is however, not very practical as you have to unscrew the top lid to access the product, covering the high shine lid with fingerprints, and you have to find a place to place it! The mirror and sponge slide out compartments are really fun though. I wish the top lid is a button pushed regular compact cover - it would make so much more sense.

Sorry for the rambling about the packaging - I do feel that packaging design is so very important. I wish I could design makeup packaging myself, I have so many cool ideas to make everything look and work better....! :)

Ok, on to the product - it is a very good cream-to-powder foundation, it blends very well into the skin and covers well even with a thin layer. Shell suits my skintone well. The finish is very nice, not too matte, not oily and looks very natural, though I wouldn't say undetectable like they advertised. Lasting power is decent, though not amazing. It is, however, really expensive! I'd place it above Lancome, Chanel and YSL but below my HG, Stephane Marais and Cle de Peau. Overall, I do like this, looks elegant among my makeup and is a very fine foundation.

I purchased HR Prodigy fdn & was so impressed by the quality & decided to "investigate" further into this line, which leads me to this cream to powder fdn. The texture is quite similar to the GA Designer Sculpting Fdn, however, this has more coverage & the color #23 biscuit matches me better than GA #5.5.The actual fdn is 10gm or 0.33 oz. housed in a golden screw top; the swing out lower compartment has the mirror on it & the sponge sits underneath. The sponge application will give a medium to full coverage.Thanks to a MUA friend who reminds me to use Mac's skunk brush for application, I did & finished with a dusting of YSL Poudre sur Mesure followed by the slightest wash of bronzer powder (BE warmth). It looks absolutely flawless and undetectable; a little too perfect for my liking, then I patted it down with a latex sponge with some skin toner. This did tone it down a bit, I've since blotted my T-zone 3 times, & its been 10 hours since I put it on, its seemed to look better now than earlier this morning. Be cautious : it takes a minute or so for the color to show, so give it a little time before layering more on as it can go overboard.I got this from Strawberrynet for $63 & fragrancenet also carries this as well. This is going to last me for a long time since a little dip with the brush will do. Another excellent product.